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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Dreading Disney

It's a right of passage to take a family trip to Disney World, so much so that I wonder if they slipped in a Constitutional amendment making it a civic duty. From the moment I became a mother, it seems, people have been asking about when we were going to Disney. It's one of my least favorite questions, right up there with "Are you going to have a fourth kid so you can finally get a boy?"

I went to Disney once as a child, and I have lots of good memories of that trip, but as a mom I've just been dreading it. The lines. The logistics. The cost. The lines. The boredom. The lines.

I know, I know, I'm the Grinch of Disney.

Since I only wanted to do Disney once with my kids, I decided we'd wait until everyone was old enough to form lifelong memories of the trip. Five years old seems good, and now that Terza is five, I'm planning our trip.

The sense of dread was polished by time into a surrendered sense of obligation. I stopped taking it all so seriously, gave up on booking Disney "the right way". The Man of the House made the hotel reservation. I booked the flights. I got around to buying tickets, then I thought about dining. As I made reservations for the Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian, something weird happened.

I felt excited.

We stayed at the Polynesian on my childhood Disney trip, The dinner show is one of my favorite memories of that trip. Finally, just like so many other things I've been excited to share with my children, I'm looking forward to Disney.